A typical energy absorbing steering column of a motor vehicle includes a housing, a steering shaft rotatably supported on the housing, and a steering wheel on the end of the steering shaft. The housing is releasable from a body structure of the motor vehicle on which it is mounted for translation through a linear collapse stroke in response to an impact on the steering wheel. During the collapse stroke of the housing, an energy absorber between the housing and the body structure converts into work a fraction of the kinetic energy of the impact. An energy absorber in a prior motor vehicle steering column, for example, includes a horizontal flat steel ribbon having one end anchored to the body structure of the motor vehicle and a preformed bump or undulation where the flat ribbon is guided over an anvil on the housing of the steering column. During the linear collapse stroke of the steering column housing, the anvil translates with the housing relative to the ribbon and effects plastic deformation of the ribbon as the anvil induces wave-like translation of the preformed bump along the length of the ribbon. A steering column according to this invention is an alternative to the steering column having the aforesaid horizontal flat steel ribbon.